At Marico, we believe it is fundamental to integrate sustainability into our core business strategy, to enable a long-term win-win situation for all stakeholders. Our stated purpose is to "Make a Difference" by ensuring a positive impact.
Marico works closely with its ecosystem to create a sustainable and inclusive growth for all. We have worked on various sustainability initiatives across our different markets in the areas of energy management, water management, farm productivity improvement, etc. Brands with a purpose also drove long-term sustainability, with two of our lead brands taking up socially relevant causes. Such steps have helped us in aligning our business, social and environmental objectives.
CREATION OF GOOD CLIMATE BY REDUCTION IN LIFE CYCLE GHG EMISSIONS OF OUR PRODUCTS:
We initiated project EnCon towards improving energy efficiencies. This project was also aimed at creating standards for processes, modifying process design, as well as equipment selection. Energy mapping was conducted to identify the low efficiency areas, followed by providing energy efficiency solutions. This facilitated a 7.81% reduction in energy consumption over the last year.
At Marico, we have always aimed to utilise power generated from renewable sources. At our Perundurai plant in South India, we were facing frequent power cuts leading to productivity losses. We took this as an opportunity, followed the group captive model and moved our energy source from Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB) to renewable power from wind energy. The transformer capacity has increased to 1,000 kVA and power allocation increased to 875 kVA. We have achieved a peak annual savings of INR 16 lacs and a reduction in GHG emissions of 1,700 tonnes of CO2e/year
We undertook 26 projects last year that led to savings of ` 374.35 lacs and helped us in reducing the quantity of raw materials used in our products.
OPTIMISING OF EARTH'S RESOURCES
In our pursuit to become a water positive organisation, we undertook projects to reduce specific water consumption at our plants. We were successful in reducing the water consumption by 21% at our Baddi plant in North India (from 1.61KL/MT in 2015-16 to 1.27 KL/MT in 2016-17). Along with this, we also worked towards water conservation at adjacent villages located around our plants in Pondicherry (Sanyassikuppam village) and Baddi (Trirla Village in Nalagarh Taluka). We also worked towards infrastructure development, which benefited around 3,000 people.
At Marico, we make meticulous efforts to work on conserving raw materials, and promoting usage of sustainable packaging material for our products. The process begins at the R&D stage, and is followed in the entire life cycle of our products. We undertook 26 projects last year that led to savings of ` 374.35 lacs, and helped us in reducing the quantity of raw materials used in our products. Reduction in laminate usage by 3%-5% (about 40 MT per annum) was achieved in a joint project led by the procurement team along with suppliers.
Safflower extension program
Safflower, by virtue of being a minor crop, does not receive the extension and research support from publicly funded organisations. As a result, the productivity and consequently, the income of Safflower farmers have not grown to the same extent as farmers of other traditional crops. Marico, being a responsible stakeholder in the Safflower value chain, works relentlessly to address this problem. It has launched a program which aims to improve the income of Safflower farmers by making Safflower a profitable crop. Various programs like seed development and propagation program, popularising the high yielding varieties seeds, testing and propagation of yield enhancing agriculture inputs, etc. were conducted. These programs have benefitted around 40,000 farmers.
Coconut extension program
Marico's study on prevalent farming practices & best cultivation methodologies leads us to believe that farmers can produce 25% more in their fields by adopting the correct practices with no or negligible increase in costs. In order to make a difference in the lives of our farmers, Marico took upon itself the task to educate the coconut growers and help them increase the productivity, thus creating long-term crop sustainability and higher returns. There were various initiatives taken during this program, including farmer trainings, awareness on coconut cultivation, management practices, and soil testing among others. The program has worked to the advantage of around 4,500 farmers.
RESPONSIBLE CORPORATE CITIZENSHIP
Marico's stated purpose is to "Make a Difference". This purpose has defined our reason to exist, which goes beyond just generating profits and creating shareholder value. We firmly believe that all stakeholders in any organization, whether it is Shareholders, Consumers, Associates, Employees, Environment, and the Society we operate in, are closely interlinked in an interdependent ecosystem. A compelling sense of higher purpose creates an extraordinary degree of engagement amongst all stakeholders, and catalyses creativity, innovation, and commitment.
Marico Innovation Foundation, a Company incorporated under section 25 of the Companies Act, 1956, is a wholly owned subsidiary of your Company. MIF is a not-for-profit organisation working towards the cause of innovation since 2003. The Foundation creates impact through its below mentioned programs:
MIF Scale Up Program
The Scale Up program is a sector-agnostic initiative that works with for-profit and not-for-profit organisations. It focuses on innovative organisations which are driven to achieve large scale social impact. The program also focuses on creating 'scalable and sustainable impact' by solving the critical business challenges faced by an organisation. The program follows a hands-on engagement process. In the financial year 2016-17, the Foundation worked closely with organisations like Tara Livelihood Academy, Fractal Microspin, Yuva Parivartan and Zaya Labs.
Marico Innovation Foundation in association with Villgro incubated an organisation called Yostra Labs Private Limited. Yostra is a healthcare technology firm pioneering smart innovations to make healthcare more effective and affordable. Yostra has developed two products, specifically to enable mass screening and treatment of diabetic patients at primary and secondary healthcare centres and resource-poor settings, making treatment accessible to patients from all socio-economic strata.
Saffolalife "Chhote Kadam - Dil ke Bade Kaam ke"
Saffola life: Healthy lifestyle is the key to a Healthy Heart: For the World Heart Day campaign this year, the findings revealed that - "Staying Active, Eating Better and Being Happy can make the heart up to 50% healthier". The campaign coined "Chhote Kadam - dil ke bade kaam ke" (Small steps to go a long way for heart) as a creative idea to drive home the point. It educates people about how making a small effort & bringing about minimal alteration in your daily habits could lead to your heart health improving by 50%. Saffolalife Research Study was conducted amongst consumers across metros with Neilsen and SRL Labs to release India's healthy lifestyle score. The study went further to bring out insights on country's physical activity levels, eating habits and stress levels. Saffolalife Research Study released Healthy Lifestyle Score of India at 68. During the year we had 43,542 consumers taking the test online.
Nihar Shanti Amla "Chhote Kadam Pragati Ke Aur"
Nihar Shanti Amla's initiative "Chotte Kadam Pragati ke Aur" (Small Steps towards Progress) is an endeavor to support the education of underprivileged children. This year, one of the priorities of education intervention was to focus was on improving learning outcomes within the age group of 4-14 years. Under this program, the brand partnered with two organisations in the year ended 2017.
GreenCo
Our Baddi unit in North India secured a Gold Certification under the GreenCo Rating system, accredited by the Confederation of Indian industry (CII). This was an endeavour to benchmark and calibrate our practices with the Green Company Rating System. This acts as a holistic framework to assess and evaluate the performance of the Company's activities in its pursuit of ecologically sustainable growth. We are the first Company in Himachal Pradesh to have bagged a Gold certification.
Marico R&D Centre goes green
The Marico R&D Centre building received the distinguished Indian Green Building Code (IGBC) certification for innovative and efficient use of energy and water, facility management and health standards.
Samyut
Advocating sustainability with all our Suppliers through annual event Samyut. It aims at creating long term valuable relationships with suppliers and encourages them to drive sustainability agendas in their organisations.
Health checkups at plants: Our plants have organised numerous health camps for the members as well as the community, which have benefitted around 580 people. The camps dealt with issues comprising women's health, dental & eye check-up, oral hygiene, and blood donation camps.
Teach Little Minds
The aim of this initiative is to nurture young minds and create awareness among students by enlightening them on importance of 'quality practices' in their day to day life. Teams visit primary schools where students are taught on Good Hygiene, Safety, Food Habits, Behaviour and Manner in innovative and interactive ways. This initiative has also been cascaded to various teams from our manufacturing and business verticals, who have taken the lead and started engaging with schools directly. We have covered almost 1,300+ students across India, and it is gaining momentum day by day since its launch.
Empowering the girl child
The "Sakshar Beti" (Translation: Literate Daughter) program was conducted for female students of Govt. Inter College, Selaqui, Dehradun, and Govt. Sr. Secondary School, Majhra, Paonta Sahib, both in North India. As a part of the program, career orientation sessions were organized and stationery kits were distributed to around 240 girl students.
Our suppliers at the Samyut event
